How do you make movies about nice people?

September 21, 2009

Having been the really big little movie of a year or so ago, Juno (2007) hardly needs another review and so, other than to say I liked it a lot and consider it one of the better movies of the last few years, I’m not going to review it. But I’d like to muse a [...]

Read the full article →

Leopards and actors and Cary Grant

August 2, 2009

I rewatched for the nth time (I’ve lost track) Howard Hawk’s Bringing Up Baby (1938). Apart from being great fun each time I watch it, this time was a bit different having read Marc Eliot’s book, Cary Grant: A Biography, and having previously watched Cary Grant: A Class Apart (a documentary on the second disc [...]

Read the full article →

This cockeyed caravan: Preston Sturges defends fluff

July 28, 2009

I watched Sullivan’s Travels (1941) yet again last night because, as the main character John L. Lloyd ‘Sully’ Sullivan (Joel McCrea) says: “There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that’s all some people have? It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan.” The words, of [...]

Read the full article →

I finally watched Slumdog Millionaire

July 27, 2009

Although it has been sitting on the sidelines in the “to be watched” pile, I’ve kept putting off watching Slumdog Millionaire. I think it has largely been due to all the media attention it received, especially pre-Oscar and then post-Oscar. Unfortunately, I watched it last night but not under the best conditions. The weather has [...]

Read the full article →

Two men, one Hitchcock

July 19, 2009

I recently finished reading Marc Eliot’s Jimmy Stewart: A Biography. Because I was reading it, I also watched a lot of Jimmy Stewart movies, which I’ve posted about before. Now I’m reading (or, rather, re-reading) Eliot’s Cary Grant: A Biography. In many ways, you couldn’t find two actors more different. For example, one was a [...]

Read the full article →

What Topper meant to Cary Grant

July 19, 2009

Although the movie Topper, despite it’s summer success in 1937, could hardly be considered a big movie, not in the Hollywood terms we usually speak of, it was a key movie in the career of Cary Grant (and for those people who came to love the movies of Cary Grant) because of what it did. [...]

Read the full article →

2 much Pink Panther?

July 19, 2009

I’m not sure why, but I keep writing about the Steve Martin Pink Panther movies. A day or two ago I put up an assessment of sorts about The Pink Panther 2. I think it may be because I was surprised when I liked the first one. I was expecting a mess with that one, [...]

Read the full article →

Rethinking Jimmy Stewart – Part 1

July 14, 2009

I’ve finally finished Marc Eliot’s book, Jimmy Stewart: A Biography. Reading it was an interesting process because, as I did, I re-watched many of the movies Jimmy Stewart appeared in. Between the book and the movies, I’ve re-evaluated my opinion of James Stewart, both the actor and the man. Truthfully, I didn’t really have an [...]

Read the full article →

Two movies, one Jimmy Stewart

July 6, 2009

I’ve been watching quite a few Jimmy Stewart movies lately because I’ve been reading his biography by Marc Eliot. It just seems the thing to do … Over the weekend, I wrote up assessments of two of his lighter films, both directed by Henry Koster and both of which I’ve always enjoyed, though one is [...]

Read the full article →

Hitchcock’s Vertigo and the litmus test

July 1, 2009

Although I’ve seen it many times over the years, it was only today I finally got around to writing something about Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 wonder, Vertigo. I posted my “review” (if you can call it that) here: Vertigo (1958). As I say in the piece, Vertigo, “… stands up as an enthralling movie, a magnificent [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →